Local women share stories of fighting breast cancer

Thursday

Oct 14, 2010 at 12:01 AMOct 14, 2010 at 2:12 PM

Hearing the words, “You have breast cancer,” can change one’s life in an instant. From shock, to fear, to anger, there are a wide range of emotions and thoughts converging all at once when those words are said and heard for the first time.

“The scariest part about breast cancer is the initial diagnosis,” said Risa Graziano, a breast cancer survivor who lives in Marshfield. “You get the diagnosis, and the doctors give you about a billion pieces of information that you’re supposed to process all at once. And you’re automatically assuming that you’re going to die. Also, you find yourself reading all these horror stories on the Internet, which is something you should never do. Do not consult the Internet – you will drive yourself crazy.”

Seth Jacobson

Hearing the words, “You have breast cancer,” can change one’s life in an instant. From shock, to fear, to anger, there are a wide range of emotions and thoughts converging all at once when those words are said and heard for the first time.

“The scariest part about breast cancer is the initial diagnosis,” said Risa Graziano, a breast cancer survivor who lives in Marshfield. “You get the diagnosis, and the doctors give you about a billion pieces of information that you’re supposed to process all at once. And you’re automatically assuming that you’re going to die. Also, you find yourself reading all these horror stories on the Internet, which is something you should never do. Do not consult the Internet – you will drive yourself crazy.”

While there are still far too many instances where the story doesn’t end “happily ever after,” there are more and more instances of survival of breast cancer, with new technologies and treatments available to allow breast cancer survivors a chance to share their stories with others.

“There are so many forms of cancer that are curable, or manageable these days,” said breast cancer survivor Pattie Majenski, of Hanson. “But you really need to be your own advocate. When I was being treated, I’d have my days where I’d say to myself, ‘I will never feel normal happiness again.’ I was afraid my life was over. But that is not the case for anyone anymore. You can beat this disease, and you can go on with your life.”

And the best way to beat the disease, most breast cancer survivors and doctors will tell you, is early detection.

Risa Graziano

If she hadn’t given herself a breast exam, Marshfield resident Risa Graziano might have not found the tumor that had formed.

“It was in my right breast,” Graziano said. “One day it wasn’t there, and the next day it was. It seemed like it formed that quickly.”

She went to the hospital the day after Christmas 2006 to get the lump checked out and was diagnosed with a form of breast cancer called Invasive Ductal Carcinoma at the age of 38.

“My doctor was very aggressive with the treatment,” Graziano said, noting she underwent six sessions of chemotherapy before she had surgery.

The lump was eventually removed. After surgery, Graziano had to undergo seven weeks of daily radiation treatments.

She said through the whole treatment, her family – her husband, Vinny and three small children – were extremely supportive. Vinny even shaved his own head when Graziano started losing her hair.

She is now cancer-free.

“When I was going through treatment, I just tried to keep things as normal as possible,” Graziano said. “My three kids had to have their lives and I felt like breast cancer was just another issue I had to tackle.”

Graziano said people who are initially diagnosed with the disease should seek out others who have been through treatment to get the real stories, not the ones from the Internet.

She also said support groups are very helpful and noted she herself has turned into a sort of resource for people who are diagnosed with the disease.

“I wish I had someone like that when I was first diagnosed,” Risa said. She added being positive can help a great deal.

“You have to look for things in life that make you feel better,” she said. “You have to take care of yourself and continue to live your life. Assume that everything will be OK because in this day and age, more than likely, it will be. There are a lot of new treatments out there.”

Pattie Majenski

Majenski discovered she had breast cancer through self-examination. She found a lump in her right breast back in July of 2005.

“It was like a hard marble,” she said. “I had never felt it before.”

She went to her doctor immediately but was told she only had “cists.”

Majenski said she was skeptical about her initial diagnosis.

“I just had a bad feeling,” she said.

Eighteen months later, she returned to the same doctor. Her “cists” had gotten bigger. There were four of them in her left breast. But the doctor told her she was not dealing with cancer.

She was not due to go back to the doctor until February of 2008. But because of a nervous feeling she had, she went back to the doctor to get the “cists” checked in October of 2007.

She was then told she had breast cancer. She was 36 years old.

“By some miracle, it was still Stage 1 cancer,” Majenski said, noting Stage 1 is considered an early form of cancer. But she added the doctor said she had a very aggressive form of breast cancer.

She had a double mastectomy that November.

“I did the double mastectomy because it was an aggressive form of cancer and I wanted to get rid of all the breast tissue,” Majenski said. “It’s not a necessary thing for all women to do but I felt it was necessary for me.”

Afterward, Majenski underwent 16 weeks of treatment with three different kinds of chemotherapy. Since her mastectomy, she has had breast reconstruction, one of the technologies available out there today.

Majenski said she is happy to be alive, referring to her experience. She stressed if you are someone who doesn’t believe what a given doctor is telling you about your body, stay on the issue and keep getting it checked out.

She said if you are told you have cists, then tell the given doctor to “aspirate” them, which means draining the cists.

“If they are really cists, they can be drained,” Majenski said. “You have to be your own advocate. I was like the poster child for early detection but the system somehow failed me. I wish I had known the right questions to ask.”

Majenski said breast cancer is not in her family gene pool and she reiterated she was under 40 when she found out she had the disease.

But she also said she would’ve never discovered the initial lump in her breast without doing a breast exam on herself.

“My prognosis is that I have a 15 percent chance of ever getting the cancer again,” Majenski said. “It’s just something I need to stay on top of.”

Victoria Corse

Marshfield resident Victoria Corse was initially diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer back in March of 2005. Back then she had a 4.8-centimeter tumor removed from her left breast.

She was put on a program where she was having chemotherapy every two weeks along with doses of radiation.

“After the surgery, technically, I was cancer-free,” Corse said.

But this past August, Corse was told her cancer had come back. Now, she is waiting to have a mastectomy in November with the hopes of getting rid of her cancer once and for all.

Corse said her doctor, Beth Lesnikoski, told her the tumor is operable and noted she will “probably” not have to have chemotherapy again, something that Corse would be fine with. She added the first time she went through chemotherapy, it was a very painful experience.

“Every hair on my body was gone,” Corse said. “Can you imagine what it’s like to not have any eyelashes?” She added she chose not to wear wigs because her head “prickled” with pain from the chemotherapy sessions.

She stressed what got her through that time was the support of her friends and her three grown daughters. And those are the same people who are getting her through a tough time right now.

Corse said being emotional is to be expected when dealing with breast cancer.

“It’s OK to be angry and frightened,” she said. “But I would tell people going through this to reach out for help, whether it’s your friends, family or therapy. The help is there—you just have to accept it. Don’t be too proud about asking for help. Where will that pride get you?”

Judy Shores

Rockland resident Judy Shores said it’s OK to be afraid of breast cancer, but stressed the disease is beatable, as she is a breast cancer survivor of 28 years.

“I was 45 when I was diagnosed,” Shores said, noting she was also going through a tough divorce at the time.

Shores said when she was initially diagnosed with the disease, her breast cancer was labeled by doctors as “Stage 3,” a late stage of the disease.

She immediately had a mastectomy and then underwent several weeks of chemotherapy treatments.

During the whole ordeal, Shores had to put food on the table for her two daughters, so she kept working at the U.S. Trust Bank in Braintree, which was located at Five Corners.

“I used to try to find humor in the situation, even when I lost all my hair,” Shores said. “I had to keep doing what I had to do. I kept a positive attitude, and I’ve always had a particularly strong sense of faith.”

She said she realized a lot has changed in terms of breast cancer detection and treatment, something she finds very promising.

“A lot has changed since the time I was diagnosed,” Shores said. “But there are things that haven’t changed, like the importance of early detection and getting yearly mammograms.”

Shores said she’s been cancer-free for so long that she doesn’t even think of it that much anymore.

“I try not to dwell on it too much,” she said. “I know I’m in remission, but cancer can lie dormant in certain parts of the body. For me, it’s about living each day to the fullest. I try to stay active and I have no regrets. Having breast cancer is what you make of it.”